The Radical NOTA Manifesto (Version 1.0)

(editor’s note: The post below is long, but should be read if you want to know what this blog is about.  I invite comments on both the merits of the idea to write-in None of the Above (NOTA) in the next election and also possible strategies to get the message out into the national dialogue.)

NONE OF THE ABOVE

A divided Supreme Court struck down limits on corporate political spending, overturning two precedents in a ruling likely to affect campaigning in the 2010 elections.  WSJ Online, January 21, 2010

Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.  NY Times, January 21, 2010

Thus the Robert’s Court spoke in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.  I’m going to leave it to others to discuss how the Supreme Court expanded the scope of the case without a request from the lawyers arguing the case and swept aside multiple precedents in order to come to this decision.  It’s pretty darned outrageous for a Court headed by a Chief Justice who, at the time of his confirmation hearings, made a public commitment to “judicial modesty” and “respect for precedent,” but I’m sure those who are paying attention will hear plenty about this.

You’ll also hear plenty about what this will do to our federal elections and, ultimately, our representative democracy.  Put me down firmly in the camp of those who see nothing but tragedy in this ruling.  But for me, this is just one more outrage perpetrated on the citizens of this country and, like the news anchor Howard Beale in the classic movie, Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

I don’t know about most others in this country (though I have talked to quite a few who share my feelings), but my political and economic outrage meter has been sitting on redline for over a year.  I can remember the very day the needle crossed permanently into the red.  It was October 3, 2008.  The day the House of Representatives passed the bill creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out the financial industry, five days after rejecting the bill due to an overwhelming avalanche of mail and email and phone calls from constituents demanding that they vote NO!

It has only gotten worse.  You would think that, as a supporter of candidate Obama, my outrage meter would have dropped at least into the yellow upon his inauguration.  Though I will admit to being taken in by the pageantry of the event and the sight of our first African American President, I also knew that then candidate Obama voted for TARP and had already picked Lawrence Summers as his chief economic advisor and nominated Timothy Geitner for Treasury Secretary.  I wasn’t seeing any change.  And the list of no change from our political masters grows (health “insurance” reform with its backroom deals is the poster child of business as usual, but there are many more examples).

In the meantime we’ve got backdoor bailouts of the Too Big To Fail (TBTF) Banks through AIG and the Federal Reserve’s purchase of the worst Mortgage Backed Securities at “very favorable” prices, along with other explicit and implicit financial commitments and guarantees that all together come to trillions of dollars.  Add to that the record bonuses being paid by the financial industry at the end of 2009 (if a defender of the financial industry tries to justify this new round of banker bonuses by saying the TBTF banks have paid off the TARP funds, the only proper response is to laugh at them). 

Now comes the Supreme Court decision to not only affirm the “personhood” of corporations, but to self-righteously declare that government must respect the 1^st Amendment rights of those corporate persons by allowing them to buy (and that is what it is) not only candidates, but the electorate itself through unlimited spending on candidates and issue ads during elections.

My outrage meter broke.  The internals pretty much exploded from the tension.  Now every branch of our government has proclaimed from the rooftops that the citizens of this country DO NOT MATTER!  We do not choose those who are supposed to represent us, nor do we have any impact on the policies, practices and laws that are decided upon in the halls of Congress, the Oval Office or the corporate boardrooms.

So I find myself in the surreal position of agreeing with the fundamental argument of the Tea Party Movement.  I want to take power away from our federal government.  I want to give the finger to every elected official in Washington and tell them to take a long walk off a short pier and take their financial overlords with them.  Though my social and political policy views may be diametrically opposed to the vast majority of those joining the Tea Party ranks, I am ready to stand side by side with them to regain the power of citizens to fight these policy differences out in a true representative democracy where our respective voices are not drowned out by special interest money and influence: a political system where candidates fear the electorate more than Wall Street.

Given that individual citizens’ avenues of participation in the consequential decisions of our times have been blocked by the unholy marriage of money and power concentrated in the hands of the few in Washington and on Wall Street, we are left with only two possible collective actions we can take as citizens to regain a government by and for the people.   Because one of those actions involves the the use of force in a violent rebellion to overthrow the government, those of us who reject the use of violence as a means to political ends are in fact left with only one realistic means of achieving our desire for true representative democracy.  We must actively and collectively withdraw all support from the existing federal political system, and we must do it in such a way that the message to all elected officials is explicit and their only option is fundamental change in the system.

My proposal is this:  those who agree that the political system is corrupt beyond redemption must band together and adopt a write-in candidate for all federal elections from this day forward until there is real change in this country’s very sick political system.  The chosen write-in candidate is None of the Above.  We continue voting, but make it a clear vote of no confidence in the political system itself.

Imagine a scenario with a majority of voters writing in None of the Above in every Congressional and Senate race in the country come November 2010.  I cannot think of a clearer statement of citizen disgust, short of violent rebellion, for our elected leaders and the system they support.  None of the Above.

The candidate for one of the major parties would still “win” the election, but they would go to Washington, DC knowing that a majority of his or her “constituents” did not support them, the party they belong to, or the government they are joining.

This would be so much easier and more powerful than fielding a third party candidate and would be an unmistakable shot across the bow to the current governing class and those that currently control them.  We can let them know that we aren’t playing a rigged game anymore.  This would also be the ultimate anti-incumbency movement.  You see, the problem with voting out the incumbent by voting FOR the other candidate is the other candidate becomes the incumbent and is quickly enveloped by the government cocoon.

By voting for None of the Above – and by None of the Above receiving the majority of votes – we the individual citizens in what was once a representative democracy will make sure that our voices are truly heard in Washington without giving whoever officially “wins” each election the opportunity to claim the support of the voters.

Sounds crazy?  Well maybe, but I believe the destruction of my outrage meter has served to dispel some cherished illusions about the United States government and I am thinking more clearly than ever before.  Is there anyone out there willing to join me in voting for None of the Above?  It’s time to shake things up.

Peace,  RadicalNOTA